The first image he told me about was of three children on a road in Iceland, in 1965. He said that for him it was the image of happiness and also that he had tried several times to link it to other images, but it never worked. He wrote me: one day I'll have to put it all alone at the beginning of a film with a long piece of black leader; if they don't see happiness in the picture, at least they'll see the black.
He wrote: I'm just back from Hokkaido, the Northern Island. Rich and hurried Japanese take the plane, others take the ferry: waiting, immobility, snatches of sleep. Curiously all of that makes me think of a past or future war: night trains, air raids, fallout shelters, small fragments of war enshrined in everyday life. He liked the fragility of those moments suspended in time. Those memories whose only function it being to leave behind nothing but memories. He wrote: I've been round the world several times and now only banality still interests me. On this trip I've tracked it with the relentlessness of a bounty hunter. At dawn we'll be in Tokyo.
He used to write me from Africa. He contrasted African time to European time, and also to Asian time. He said that in the 19th century mankind had come to terms with space, and that the great question of the 20th was the coexistence of different concepts of time. By the way, did you know that there are emus in the Île de France?
Ah well... after all, history only tastes bitter to those who expected it to be sugar coated. sans soleil.
Warum weiss ich immer nach den ersten Zeilen, wenn von diesem Film die Rede ist? Die Eingangssequenz mit den Kindern, dem Flugzeugträger - ich kann nicht gut beschreiben, was sie in mir auslöst. Ich will den Film gern wiedersehen - aber will ich es wirklich? Oder will ich mich gern wiedersehen, wie ich war, als ich ihn zum ersten Mal sah?
gerade wieder gesehen und diskutiert, eine erstaunliches stück film. und "der letzte bolschewik" vorgestern zum ersten mal gesehen, und "la jetée", natürlich, zum wiederholten mal. danke für den link zum "sans soleil"-skript.